Israeli strikes kill seven in Lebanese capital

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - BEIRUT — At least seven people were killed in two separate strikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut early on Wednesday, as Israel vowed to occupy large swathes of southern Lebanon when the war ended.
The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli air raid on south Beirut's Jnah area killed at least five people and wounded 21 others. A Lebanese security source said four parked cars were hit.
Another strike that hit a vehicle in Khaldeh, just south of the capital, killed two people and wounded three, the health ministry said in a separate statement.
Israel's military said it had struck a "senior Hezbollah commander" and another member of the group in two separate strikes "in the Beirut area", without naming the targets or giving detail on the exact locations.
More Israeli strikes also hit southern Lebanon, where fierce clashes with Hezbollah fighters continue, and the militant group claimed rocket fire targeted a group of soldiers near the border.
In the South, strikes killed at least eight people, one of them a paramedic, and wounded more than 30, according to the ministry of health.
Israeli media said a barrage of more than 40 rockets were fired by Hezbollah, which claimed multiple attacks on northern Israel in successive statements late Tuesday.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said his country would occupy swathes of south Lebanon and destroy the homes along the border to prevent the return of about 600,000 residents, prompting concerns of long-term forced displacement.
He said when fighting with Hezbollah ended, Israel would occupy the area under the Litani River, about 19 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, as part of its so-called buffer zone inside southern Lebanon.
He also said the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese would be "completely prevented" until northern Israel's security was ensured.
"All the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished... to remove once and for all the border-adjacent threats from the residents of the north," he added.
Lebanese Defence Minister Michel Menassa quickly condemned the comments, saying the plans were "a deepening of the aggression" against his country.
Menassa said Katz's remarks were "no longer mere threats, but reflect a clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of citizens, and systematically destroy villages and towns in the South."
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced Israel's deployment of troops against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as an "illegal invasion" that violates its "integrity and sovereignty".
Lebanese authorities say the war has so far killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than one million.
UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Israel blames Hezbollah for all three of the recent peacekeeper deaths in southern Lebanon, citing explosive devices Monday near Bani Ayan and the shelling of a UN peacekeeper position Saturday.
He provided no evidence, and a UN spokesman said the investigation is ongoing. The three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed as Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in fighting.
Late on Tuesday, Israel’s military said its troops were not present in the southern Lebanon area where an explosion killed two UNIFIL peacekeepers on Monday. It also said no explosive device had been placed in the area by Israeli soldiers.
A UN security source told AFP on Tuesday that Israeli fire had killed an Indonesian peacekeeper at the weekend, after the UN force said it was investigating the incident.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon had said that the peacekeeper was killed on Sunday evening when a projectile of unknown origin "exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit al Qusayr".
The source told AFP on condition of anonymity that investigations had shown the fire came from an Israeli tank, adding that "debris from a tank round has been recovered" at the site.
On Monday, UNIFIL said another "explosion of unknown origin" destroyed a peacekeeping vehicle, killing two more Indonesian troops. — Agencies